The GAA could rake in an extra €6 million thanks largely to the raft of concerts that Croke Park will host this year.

Garth Brooks is set to sell out the stadium for a fourth time when tickets for his latest date at GAA HQ in July go on sale on Thursday morning while boy band One Direction play three shows there in May and there is also the glamour collegiate American football game between Penn State and University of Central Florida in August.

Each of the concerts are worth around €750,000 to the GAA and while the American football game may produce a more modest return, the Association seems certain to break the €5.5m mark for these events alone.

The GAA yesterday released its financial reports and Pairc an Chrocaigh Teoranta (PACT), a spin off company of the Association which runs Croke Park, showed an impressive profit of €6.9m over a 10-month period in 2013, only slightly down on 2012, when the stadium hosted four concerts compared to none last year.

It was also revealed that the debt on rebuilding Croke Park has effectively been wiped out.

“We didn’t know this would be in the pipeline,” said stadium director Peter McKenna of the unprecedented seven concerts the ground will hold this year.

“This was a Christmas present really. That’s the truth of it.

“I think what was heartening about 2013 was we didn’t have a concert, but we hit our numbers and that was very important.

“So our dividend back to the Association remained the same at €4m. There was a lot of effort done at taking our costs base down. To deliver what we did was, I think, an exceptional year.”

McKenna linked the unprecedented demand for the Brooks concerts to the pricing policy.

“It’s very much in consultation with the artist and the promoter. The tickets for this concert are very, very good value at €60.

“Ordinarily a big attraction like this, shove them up and charge €100 or €120 like the Rolling Stones or something like that.

“Now, if we had done that you would have just two concerts.”

Barely 20 years after the GAA undertook the huge task of rebuilding Croke Park, it was established that the loan required for the redevelopment has effectively been paid off.

Work started in September 1993 when the old Cusack Stand was ripped down before the Canal End was demolished in 1998 along with the Hogan Stand the following year, while the opening of the new Hill 16 terrace in 2005 marked the completion of the fourth and final phase.

The whole project came at a cost of around €285m though but Croke Park has cleared the last of debt owed to the bank by drawing down an internal loan from the GAA’s Central Council.

McKenna added that hosting further collegiate American football games in 2016 and 2018 are in the pipeline, though the idea of holding an NFL fixture appears to have been placed on the back burner for now.

Croke Park will also be the centrepiece of the IRFU’s 2023 Rugby World Cup bid while McKenna hasn’t ruled out hosting a knockout Munster-Leinster Heineken Cup fixture this year if an approach comes.

“If there’s a national interest in something like this, and the ground is available, we would work with them,” he added.